Plant of the moment - tormentil (Potentilla erecta)

Tormentil is still in flower in mid-October along heathy rides where the soil is acid, often scrambling up into the grass and heather alongside the track.  An Irish author said "it is a small, miserable-looking plant which grows on barren soil and ditches."

It is similar to cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans) but this is larger and more characteristic of gardens and waste ground.  Tormentil has four, rather than five, petals and they are arranged rather like a Maltese cross.

The flowers are visited by small hoverflies and other insects and there are also a few moth, fly and beetle species that live on the plant, but none is exclusive to it.

The name 'tormentil' is said to derive from the Latin tormentum, but this usually means a war catapult or a twisted rope.  However, the word tormentuosus means 'full of pain' and 'tormentil' perhaps refers to the stomach ache that the root is reputed to cure.  It is still offered for sale and is a constituent of some herbal medicines and full of tannin and other substances.  Tormentil root has also been used externally on cuts and abrasions and, like almost every other wild plant, has been reputed to have  magical powers.  The root burnt at midnight on Fridays was said to cause wayward partners to return to their lovers.

It was once important in tanning as a substitute for oak bark, especially in areas where trees were scarce.  Older country names included 'shepherd's knapperty' and 'English sarsaparilla'.

A good year for fungi

This year has been particularly good for fungi and, a couple of days ago, I enjoyed a walk with two friends, one of whom is an expert mycologist.

Altogether we found some 70 different species in a few hours during which we were only able to cover a few areas of Brede High Wood.  The commonest was undoubtedly the sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare) - see below.

Another common species was the false death cap (Amanita citrina).  It is rather paler and yellower than the true death cap and has the distinctive patches on the cap.  The ring round the stipe and the cup or volva at the base show that it is an Amanita.

The following day I found my first fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), just a baby but indicative that the species should soon be fairly common.

All three species are poisonous, or at least inedible, though a wide range of invertebrates consume them with impunity.

Hunting for ferns

On 26 September I took two of our leading fern experts, Paul Ripley (left) and Pat Acock from the British Pteridological Society to the fernier parts of the woods and learnt a great deal myself about how to distinguish one fern from another.

So far we have recorded 14 fern species and 2 horsetails (also pteridophytes).  These include western polypody (Polypodium interjectum); common polypody (Polypodium vulgare); bracken (Pteridium aquilinum); hart's-tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium); lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina); hard shield fern (Polystichum aculeatum); soft shield fern (Polystichum setiferum); scaly male fern (Dryopteris affinis); Borrer's male fern (Dryopteris borreri); narrow buckler fern (Dryopteris carthusiana); broad buckler fern (Dryopteris dilatata); male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas); hard fern (Blechnum spicant); field horsetail (Equisetum arvense) and great horsetail (Equisetum telmateia).

Hay-scented buckler fern (Dryopteris aemula) has been recorded in the past, but has not been seen recently, while maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes ssp. quadrivalens) grows plentifully on the bridge in Reservoir Lane opposite the entrance to Rafters Wood just outside the Woodland Trust boundary (see below).

Some of the Dryopteris species are quite a challenge, even for the experts.  The male fern, the scaly male fern and Borrer's male fern are not easy to tell apart, have many different forms and often produce hybrids.  On our field trip we found, for example, one hybrid male fern (Dryopteris x complexa) by the public footpath above Powdermill Stream.  The red-stemmed form of the lady fern also occurs here and there.

Several of the ferns grow in large numbers in Brede High Woods, but are not all that common in South East England, preferring the damp, sheltered, wooded valleys and gills of the High Weald.

Above: hart's tongue ferns (Asplenium scolopendrium on Powdermill Stream bridge.

Introduction to the blog

Brede High Woods is a 262 hectare (648 acre) Woodland Trust property in the parishes of Brede Sedlescombe and Ewhurst Green to the north of Hastings in East Sussex, UK. It is a complex of wildlife rich ancient woodland and plantation woodland, with some grassland and heath. There is also considerable historic interest from the former farms, and activities associated with the powder mill and ironworks that once operated nearby. There is open public access and details of the site are published at http://www.wt-woods.org.uk/bredehighwoods

I created this weblog in 2008 with the intention of bringing news of the woods to anyone who is interested. I work closely with the Woodland Trust and am an ecologist by profession, but this weblog is entirely my responsibility, my main qualification being that I live close to the woods and have walked them regularly since the late 1950s.